An increased wage could fulfill dreams

Less than one month ago at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration on Hilton Head Island, the MLK Celebration Committee presented its annual humanitarian award to the Rev. Manuel Holland and his wife, Olive, for their contributions to King's memory over the last 10 years.

In his remarks accepting the honor, Holland, the senior minister at Bluffton's Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Lowcountry, raised the issue that part of Dr. King's unfulfilled dream was income inequality.

Holland proposed, as one step to rectify the problem locally, that the business, political and religious leaders here work to support a minimum wage increase in 2015 to $10.10 per hour. That proposal roused the audience to a standing ovation.

Is it too much to ask that in an affluent area like ours we should provide an increased wage for the thousands who work long, hard hours and still struggle to make a living?

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